快猫短视频

EXCRUCIATING pain often stops people with arthritic knees walking even short
distances. But tiny electronic implants injected into their thigh muscles can
improve mobility and alleviate the pain.

Treatment for arthritic knees often involves getting the patient to exercise
the joint, but this can be difficult. 鈥淏ecause they鈥檙e in pain, they stop doing
much exercise and their muscles become more wasted,鈥� says Gerald Loeb at the
University of Southern California in Los Angeles. And this makes things worse,
he says, 鈥渂ecause it鈥檚 the muscles that protect the knee from further
诲补尘补驳别鈥�.

Loeb says his BION implants鈥攁bout the size of a grain of
rice鈥攚ill strengthen patients鈥� muscles without the need for weight-bearing
exercise
(快猫短视频, 11 December 1999, p 5). In a trial carried out at
Italy鈥檚 Orthopaedic Institute in Milan, scientists injected one BION into each
thigh of patients with chronic arthritis of the knee. The implant was positioned
next to the femoral nerve, which stimulates the quadricep muscles at the front
of the leg.

To strengthen the muscle, an external electrical coil beams a radio signal to
the implant. This triggers the device to produce electrical pulses that make the
muscle contract a few times each second. Three patients received up to an hour鈥檚
treatment each day for 24 weeks.

The preliminary results, presented at this week鈥檚 meeting of the
International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society in Cleveland, Ohio, are
positive, says Loeb. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e doing exactly what we hoped,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o far all
three patients have had improved reduction of pain and improved daily function.鈥�